Matthew
CHAPTER 1
The genealogy of Jesus
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah begot Perez and Zerah of Tamar and Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz of Rahab and Boaz begot Obed of Ruth and Obed begot Jesse. 6 Jesse begot David the king. And David begot Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah.
7 And Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, Abijah begot Asa. 8 Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, Joram begot Uzziah. 9 Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, Ahaz begot Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, Amon begot Josiah. 11 Josiah begot Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the captivity in Babylon.
12 And after the captivity in Babylon, Jechoniah begot Shealtiel, Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, Eliakim begot Azor. 14 Azor begot Sadoc, Sadoc begot Achim, Achim begot Eliud. 15 Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, Matthan begot Jacob. 16 Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David to the captivity in Babylon fourteen generations and from the captivity in Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
The birth of Jesus
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not willing to make her a public example, decided to send her away secretly. 20 But as he thought on these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: Joseph you son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she shall give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this happened so what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: 23 The virgin shall be with child and shall give birth to a son; and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. 24 And Joseph woke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual intercourse with her until she had given birth to a son; and he called his name Jesus.
Commentary
1:1 The Gospel records are transcripts of how e.g. Matthew preached the Gospel. Matthew begins his explanation of the Gospel [“good news”] by demonstrating that Jesus was the descendant of Abraham and David. This is important because the Gospel was contained in the promises to those men (Gal. 3:8) that they would have a literal descendant, who would be God’s Son, Jesus. Therefore Jesus didn’t exist as a physical person before He was born; He had our human nature.
1:19 Joseph could have told others of her situation, and made her a “public example”, or put her through the “law of jealousy” of Numbers 5. But exactly because Joseph was truly “righteous”, he didn’t do that. He was sensitive to her- as we should be to others who are caught up in situations beyond our full understanding.
1:20 Conceived- Jesus began within Mary. He didn’t pre-exist. He was born ‘of her’ (1:16). 1:21 ‘Jesus’ means ‘Saviour’; ‘Christ’ means ‘Anointed’.
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